Cons:

BioWare, the company behind classic PC RPGs like Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, took an extraordinary risk a few years ago when it shifted its development priorities to consoles. This gamble seemed to pay off with popular, well-received Xbox titles like Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire. Meanwhile, it took two years for loyal PC gamers to finally get their own version of BioWare's Asian-themed opus. While Jade Empire -- Special Edition is an excellent port of a great action-RPG, the intervening years have seen the state-of-the-art in both action games and RPG design move forward and reveal cracks in what once seemed a flawless experience.

Jade Empire casts the player as a mysterious student who has been raised from infancy by Master Li, the head teacher at a martial arts school in the town of Two Rivers. Two Rivers is a tiny outpost of a fantastically conceived universe that draws from a hodgepodge of Asian influences including Chinese history and mythology, Japanese architecture, Buddhist, Shinto and animist philosophy and legends as well as a host of kung-fu and action films. The story involves the search for the main character's mysterious past, as well as the cause of a plague of angry ghosts that threaten to destroy the Empire.

If the story sounds a bit clichéd, that's because it is. But that hardly matters when compared with the skill of Jade Empire's presentation. The world that BioWare has created alternately beautiful and terrifying, filled with angelic nature spirits and vile demons that vie for the soul of humanity, along with a very real evil at the heart of the story that springs from nothing more than basic human nature. The game's dialogue is superb, voiced by an exceptionally talented cast that bring a cast of absolutely fascinating characters to life and make what might otherwise have been a collection of stock RPG elements feel fresh and new.

One of the key elements of the storyline's strength is the game's ethics system. As players adventure through the world, they will be presented with a variety of ethical choices concerning how to react to various circumstances. Do you save the forest spirit and confront a vile demon, or take the quicker route to the completion of your goals by just killing the spirit? More than mere dialogue choices, how the player chooses to proceed will dramatically affect the way the player experiences the game as well as the kind of treasure and items they can find.

The first time I played through, I followed the "light side" path (called the Way of the Open Palm) and had a great time. The second time I followed the "dark side" path (Way of the Closed Fist) and was so shocked at some of the actions the game had me perform I actually felt guilty over what I had done to fictional characters. Having a truly evil path to follow that sports consistent character development and doesn't feel forced is a triumph.

The bad news is that the strength of that system actually makes its major flaws stand out in sharp relief. The premise of the two "Ways" is that neither truly corresponds to "good" or "evil" in the Western sense of the word. Open Palm followers endeavor to help everybody, true, but it can also foster dependency, laziness and arrogance. Closed Fist practitioners can be cruel and heartless, but are ultimately practicing a form of "tough love" that seeks to strengthen others through adversity. True evil in Jade Empire's world lies in the motivations for one's actions, not the actions themselves. While the nuances of these two philosophies are ably presented in the dialogue choices that the player is confronted with, there are problems with the game's endings.